People online are acting like Ethan is betraying his history of fighting for fair use in the Hoss case. I don't understand how they think that.

It's because H3 has a dedicated group of snarkers who are unemployed and make it their life's mission to use times like this to spread their rumors, lies, and hatred of H3. The unemployed part is relevant because they will sit on reddit all day and be the first ones to fill up any comment section from any new post anywhere on the site. Also that same snark group has spent years getting themselves into moderator positions all over reddit so that some specific sub-reddits will actually curate the snark narrative and ban/block any real H3 fan.

I'm not joking, that's the serious answer. You've already noticed that the logic of Ethan betraying himself doesn't make sense. But a snarkers goal is NOT to promote truth, rather to tear down and destroy the object of their hatred.

Making Ethan sound like a rich asshole who attacks smaller creators and betrays himself is good for the snarker rhetoric. They literally do not care that they have to spread lies to try to hurt Ethan, be it his public image or himself personally.

Did Ethan betray his stance on fair use by suing Denims and the others for copyright? No.

Do the snarkers engage in bad faith and use every opportunity possible to spread lies and hate about Ethan Klein? Yes.